Anyone who is looking for an exceptional finish, is always concerned with cleanliness. This could be in relation to getting ready to go out on a first date, cleaning your windows, or pulling the weeds from your garden, yes even dirt can be cleaned of weeds. But why is an exceptional finish necessary? To all it isn’t, but to those of us who want the things we do, to reflect the person behind them, cleanliness is very important. So lets have a look at how the tack cloth can help our paint jobs.

Have you ever attempted to apply window tint? If not this is a lesson in futility that I believe everyone should experience at least once in their lifetime, at least anyone who is interested in modding. It doesn’t have to be on your car, just pick up some cheapo window film from your local automotive shop, and try it on a spare piece of glass, or an easy to access window in your home. What you will quickly learn, is that as much as you think you have removed all dust from the surface, once you apply the window film, you will see just the amount of dust that still remains.

How does this relate to modding? Well a large portion of modding, is painting your case to a certain color, to match the theme, or mod that you are working on. There are many important factors that come into play when it comes to modding, but a Tack Cloth, or Tack Rag, is one that I see talked about, but never really explained fully its true importance. I have noticed people say use a Tack Cloth to remove the final dust, THIS IS IMPORTANT, but never really speak of why this is so important. SO let’s start with some basics.

What is a Tack Cloth? A Tack Rag, or Tack Cloth is a specialized wiping cloth, treated with a tacky material, used to remove particles of dust, lint, or dirt. That dust, could contaminate the surface you are about to paint, and thus needs to be eliminated before applying any type of paint. Just because you are applying primer, and it won’t be the final finish, that dust, sometimes microscopic, needs to be removed.

Here we can see a Tack Cloth:

The description on the front label of the Tack Cloth reads:

Synthetic hydro-entangled fibers are locked together for superior, durable and tear resistant fabric

Apertured to pick up and hold particulates

Completely removes surface particulates without harmful residues

Wax and Silicone-Free

Designed for Waterborne; compatible with all paints

I purchased this Tack Cloth from Harbor Freight, at the following link:Tack Cloth

They can also be found on Amazon for about 3 dollars from 3M:Tack Cloth

You can see how inexpensive this item is, but its importance to the final outcome of your paint job, is dramatic. Adding up the amount of money spent on sand paper, primer, paint, clear coat, if you do not take this step and spend the money on your Tack Cloth, the end result will show.

Hopefully this will help some of you eliminate some dust from your paint jobs, allowing you to eliminate a step in having to wet sand dust out of your final finished paint. Thanks for reading this article, and here at Precision Computing we look forward to bringing you more modding tips, to help you out with your future case mods.